Court Upholds School Policy Banning Boy From Girls’ Team

PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court upheld a Bethlehem high (Pa.) school policy used to ban a boy from playing on its girls’ field hockey team.

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned a lower-court decision in ruling that field hockey can exclude the opposite sex under federal law because it can be considered a contact sport.

Chief Judge Dolores Sloviter, in her opinion, pointed to National Federation rules, which “require mouth protectors and shin guards, prohibit spiked shoes . . . and prohibit wearing jewelry” as a suggestion that “bodily contact does in fact occur frequently and is expected to occur during a game.”

The decision likely ends the field hockey career of John Williams, 17, a goalie who has played only one full season at Liberty High School.

“He’s starting his senior year, so I really don’t know if we are going to continue the legal fight,” Williams’ father, Wayne, told the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.

Wayne and Sarah Williams filed the lawsuit on their son’s behalf in October, 1990, when district officials banned John Williams from the team after he had won a spot and received a uniform.

U.S. District Judge E. Mac Troutman’s ruling last July allowing Williams to play prompted Liberty Coach Robin Connors to quit and drew threats of forfeits from other teams.